Assessing the Impact of Parliamentary Design:The Case of the Danish Committe on Gender Equality

This article contributes to the literature on parliamentary design in general and the pioneer literature on parliamentary bodies specialized in gender equality in particular. It does so by establishing a frame for the critical assessment of the impacts of such an institutional design. Moreover, by using interviews and data on the behavior of committee members, it demonstrates the advantages of applying a mixed method within a field that has mostly relied on participant interviews. A systematic analysis of the impact of the Danish Committee on Gender Equality shows that although this particular committee has not succeeded in adding the perspective of gender equality to legislation, it has increased parliamentary control with the government. Furthermore, it has enabled much better interaction between parliament and civil society organizations

Færøske og grønlandske mandater i Folketinget

Rigsfællesskabet står højt på agendaen i disse år, men selvom Folketinget må siges at være en central arena for fællesskabets historiske og nutidige udfoldelse, ved vi kun meget lidt om de nordatlantiske mandaters deltagelse i folketingsarbejdet. Særligt ved vi næsten intet om forskellen på grønlandske og færøske medlemmers deltagelse: Deltager de på samme vis, eller er der væsentlige forskelle? I perioden 1953 til i dag har både medlemmer fra Færøerne og Grønland beskæftiget sig mest med nationale forhold, ligesom de har forholdt sig ens i spørgsmål om parlamentariske flertalsdannelser, men der er væsentlige forskelle. Blandt andet deltager de grønlandske medlemmer dobbelt så meget i en række parlamentariske aktiviteter, ligesom de holder langt mindre orlov

Færøske og grønlandske mandater i Folketinget

Rigsfællesskabet står højt på agendaen i disse år, men selvom Folketinget må siges at være en central arena for fællesskabets historiske og nutidige udfoldelse, ved vi kun meget lidt om de nordatlantiske mandaters deltagelse i folketingsarbejdet. Særligt ved vi næsten intet om forskellen på grønlandske og færøske medlemmers deltagelse: Deltager de på samme vis, eller er der væsentlige forskelle? I perioden 1953 til i dag har både medlemmer fra Færøerne og Grønland beskæftiget sig mest med nationale forhold, ligesom de har forholdt sig ens i spørgsmål om parlamentariske flertalsdannelser, men der er væsentlige forskelle. Blandt andet deltager de grønlandske medlemmer dobbelt så meget i en række parlamentariske aktiviteter, ligesom de holder langt mindre orlov.Artikeltitel på pdf: Nordatlantiske mandater i Folketinget</p

North Atlantic mandates in the Danish Parliament, the Folketing

Although the history and the future of the Danish Realm are currently questions of great political concern, and the Danish Folketing is an important arena for political life in the Realm, we know little about the North Atlantic mandates in the Danish Folketing. Most notably, we have no knowledge about the difference between the mandates from the Faroe Islands and Greenland: Do they participate in similar ways? Although North Atlantic MPs have acted quite similarly in relation to Danish government formation and have generally been most concerned with parliamentary affairs of specific interest to their homeland, there are important differences. Most notably, Greenlandic members have engaged almost twice as much in most parliamentary activities and they take much less leave

Pitkin’s Second Way : Freeing Representation Theory from Identity

ABSTRACT Within the last decade, sociologists as well as scholars of political culture and elections have come to conclusions that should warn us about studying political interests as something that is linked to the identity of people in a group. Yet, despite innovation within representation theory concerning the way in which we are to approach and study identity groups, representation theorists, for the most part, continue to conceive of interest as something that is linked to identity. This paper offers an alternative route. Reopening Pitkin’s classical approach to representation points out that her concept of substantively acting for is a dual one. Hence, it consists of acting for interests that are attached to the identity of specific people on the one hand (what I term ‘Pitkin’s first way’) and interests that exist unattached of peoples’ identity on the other (what I term ‘Pitkin’s second way’). By reclaiming this much forgotten second way and readjusting it so that it is capable of incorporating the important innovations of recent representation theory and the twenty-first century, the paper creates an opportunity for representation theorists and political actors alike, to create new distance between identity and interests.